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“I understand. I made mistakes in the past; I know that now. I don’t want to fight with you. I don’t want to lose you, either.” I offer my hand to her, palm up on the small table, and just like I knew she would, Sophie sets her small hand in mine before tracing the lines on my palm with the tips of her fingers. “It doesn’t have to be one or the other. I just want to see you again.”
“I don’t know,” Sophie whispers, looking lost and I hate it. I hate it all. I pull my hand away, feeling the chill in the air against my palm. It pairs perfectly with the hollowness in my chest. “You’ll ruin me,” she answers with a dullness in her voice, a loss of fight yet complete with conviction.
Ruin her. Yes. That’s exactly what I want to do. No other man is right for her but me.
Hearing those words on her lips unleashes a part of me I don’t want to hide from her. It’s impulsive, but I grab the leg of her chair and drag both it and her closer to me. She squeals, and with the addictive sound she grins broadly. The heat, the tension, it all skyrockets as she bites down on her lower lip and that beautiful blush I love to see creeps onto her cheeks.
“People will see.” She barely gets out the excuse before I tell her, “Let them.”
“Madox,” she says and her whisper is a hushed admonishment, but her smile stays in place as she peeks up at me and then at my lips before giving me a small chaste kiss.
When she breaks away, I wait for her eyes to reach mine and kiss her deeper, cupping her jaw and kissing her the way she deserves to be kissed.
I kiss her until she’s breathless, letting the tip of my nose brush against hers and then kissing her once more, quick and soft, to seal the kiss.
“The way you kiss me…” She doesn’t finish her sentence, keeping her eyes closed the entire time.
The need to take her right now creeps up on me as she glances at her phone, and it buzzes in her hand until she clicks the screen.
With a reluctant sigh, she tells me, “I have to go; my boss wants to meet for brunch before work tomorrow.”
“I want to see you tonight.” I leave no room for negotiation in my tone. “We have a lot to talk about. A lot to catch up on.”
Picking up her purse, she brushes her hair behind her ear and settles her phone into place, leaving me waiting.
Just as I’m ready to tell her I’ve waited long enough, she speaks softly. “I’m scared it’s going to be just like how it was before.”
She’ll never know how much it fucking kills me to hear her say that. Every day since she left, I’ve coveted what we had.
“I don’t want to be some weak girl hanging on the arm of a man who’s perfectly fine if she walks away,” she says, and her voice cracks. “I don’t want to fight, Madox.”
“We don’t have any reason to fight. I’m just taking you to dinner.” I feel my throat tighten as I swallow, and the old man from earlier leaves with a to-go cup of coffee in his hand, making the bells jangle again. He steals her attention from me, but when I get it back, she offers me a kind smile.
“I don’t remember you being this … persistent.”
“You don’t know everything about me, Sophie. I was never okay when you walked away.”
She doesn’t know how I kept tabs on her when I found out she’d run away. She doesn’t know what I thought of her that very first night she slept in my clothes, in my house, either.
“Meet me tonight.” Although I’ve given her an order rather than a request, I’m not sure that she will. Her movements pause, halting the hoodie midair before she slips it on and then nods.
“I’ll meet you.” Her expression turns soft as she tells me quietly, “I was dreading seeing you, you know?” She shakes her head as if in disbelief then adds, “But somehow I knew I wouldn’t be able to set foot in this city without running into you.”
She offers me a kiss on the cheek before she leaves, bells chiming as I watch her walk away, thinking about that first night I met her, the night I saved her, and how everything shifted the first moment I saw Sophie Miller.
She may have dreaded seeing me last night, but there isn’t a damn thing I ever dreaded when it came to her except for her walking away. Since the moment I saw her, it’s always been her.
* * *
“Is she homeless?”Ryan asked me from the front seat of Cody’s Mercedes. He asked the question from between tightly clenched teeth, but she heard him anyway, stiffening beside me in the backseat. She was so beautiful. Her vulnerability though, her trusting me, it called to me like nothing had before.
Cody rolled down the windows, letting in the night air as we drove back to our place by the park. It was a smaller place, one owned by Cody’s parents, and we used it as our party pad. Brett had stayed back to play video games, but he was the only one there. She’d be safe there; we could keep her safe. I could keep her safe.
“I left my parents’ house… my car, fuck…” the small girl trailed off and whirled around to look out the back window. “My car is back there, just--”
“It can wait,” I said, cutting her off. She’d already freaked out once, but she listened to me. She trusted me. At least enough to calm down.
“I don’t want to go home.” Her words shook like her shoulders did, and when Cody looked back at her, she scooted closer to me. She did that all night, clinging to me like I was her savior whenever anyone looked at her. No one had ever looked at me like that.
